


Epiphany

by tgwltw



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Precious Peter Parker, Protective Peter Parker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-25
Updated: 2019-02-25
Packaged: 2019-11-05 11:31:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17917946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tgwltw/pseuds/tgwltw
Summary: Peter Parker realizes how bad of a friend he has been the same time he realizes that he is in love with you.





	Epiphany

**Author's Note:**

> cross posted from @tgwltw and fixed!

Being close friends with Peter entitles you to a lot of things – like knowing his most well-kept secret: The Spiderman. Being his close friend also entitles you to sweeping in to save Peter when he bails on his lovely Aunt May (and she is very lovely, and you absolutely adore her) when he gets called to go for a brief mission a state over.

“You owe me big time.” You tell Peter as you park right outside of the apartment he still shared with May. You turn the ignition off and unbuckle your seatbelt before getting out of the car. “Do you think this will take long?” You ask him, grabbing your purse and making sure everything is in the purse before locking the door. Peter tells you that he doesn’t actually think he will be long – maybe a good thirty minutes to an hour top. “Alright, see you later, Peter; stay safe.” You remind him as you normally do whenever he goes on a mission and Peter chuckles, telling you to stay safe as well before you ended the call.

Once you reach the seventh floor, you head over to their apartment and right as you are about to knock the door, it opens, and you step back in surprise when May steps out with a big smile on her face. “Hi, Y/N.” She leans forward to press her lips against your cheek in greeting and you smile, giving her a brief hug. “How have you been?”

The smile on your face widens: May is such a lovely person that so much so, sometimes you want to smack Peter for almost always bailing on spending some quality time with May. “I’ve been great – a little bit swamped with assignments but it’s nothing I can’t handle, May.” You inform her as May steps out of the apartment, locking the door behind her and the both of you begin to head to the elevator, going straight to the ground floor and in to your car.

“I am so thankful you can help me out – my car is, unfortunately, still in the workshop.” May buckles her seatbelt once the two of you get in to your car and you shake your head. It’s not like you minded at all – coincidentally, you had been on your way to the supermarket when Peter called you. “So, how are Peter and you?” May winks at you and you resist the urge to blush and roll your eyes as you begin the drive towards the nearest supermarket – which happens to be a good twenty-minute drive from the apartment.

You laugh sheepishly. “There is nothing going on between Peter and I, May.” You glance at her from the corner of your eyes. You have no idea why May might think that there is something going on between the two of you – you have always been one of Peter’s closest friends (aside from Ned) and you probably will always be; you have never actually given a thought about it in that way. However, now that May has put that thought in your head…

May looks a little bit skeptical with your answer but she nods her head regardless, a knowing smile on her face. She has lived long enough to recognize the looks the two of you would give each other whenever you think the other is not looking. Sometimes May just wants to make the two of you have a sit down and talk about feelings however trying to push the two of you together when you have yet to likely realize your own feelings will probably result in something completely different. So, she simply minds her own business – only occasionally sticking her nose in this particular area of the business.

You keep your eyes lock on the road, only occasionally throwing glances at Peter’s Aunt. Your fingers twitch as you try your hardest not to do anything too drastic. The two of you manage to pass time by talking about school and work and the run to the supermarket only took about thirty minutes before the two of you were done. After the supermarket and on the way back, the two of you decided to drop by 7/11 because you were craving for a Slurpee and May decided she wanted to get some snacks for Peter (because she thinks the snacks she bought at the supermarket would not be enough for him – “He has a very big appetite”). Now you sort of wished you hadn’t decided to get a Slurpee because if you hadn’t, then the two of you would not have been placed in this situation.

May holds her breath as the man hooks his right arm under her chin, constricting her breathing – she is currently being held at gunpoint and the cashier also suffered the same fate as her, right until the part where they decided to end his life because he simply refused to hand over money and you have your arm twisted tightly behind your back, a knife being pressed to the back of your neck. To say you aren’t scared would be a total lie because you are absolutely scared.

“Now, it’s either you head over to that fucking cash register and put all of the money in this bag or she gets it.” The man behind you grunts beside your ear and you shiver in disgust. Anger builds up inside you when the other man tightens his hold on May, causing her to panic and when he hit May with the butt of his gun that is when you decided to take things in to your own hands – honestly, you did not know where you got this sudden courage from but you feel like you had to try and do something because otherwise, one way or another, the both of you will probably end up dead, just like the poor cashier.

You ram your free elbow viciously in to the man’s side, causing you to feel explosion on your neck and just as the other man tries to do something to May, you threw the Slurpee you have been holding directly to his face, catching him by surprise and making him drop his hold on May. She almost falls to the ground but manages to stumble away unsteadily from the man that had held her captive. You pick up the nearest can you can reach and throw it to the man, hitting him so hard in the face that he immediately dropped his gun. He groans in pain and you turn to look at the man who held you captive, immediately kicking him in the chest, knocking him back.

But before you can actually do anything else, Spiderman bursts in to the store, effectively knocking the two men out with ease. Peter shoots his web fluids left and right, knocking the robbers out like they are nothing. You can see just how tense he is and as you made to approach him, he whirls around to face you.

“Where is May?” Peter asks you but before you can answer, something else catches his attention: Aunt May comes out from her hiding place, supporting a nasty bruise on her face (the man had slapped her earlier the first time she tried to escape) and looking rather disheveled and that is when Peter completely loses it. “How could you let her get hurt, Y/N?” Peter all but snarls at you – this catches you by surprise so much so, you actually take a step back because Peter has never raised his voice at you. He rushes over to May, wrapping his arms around her body. “Aunt May.” You can hear the distress tone in his voice, and you swallow the lump that suddenly appeared in your throat.

“P-Peter,” May calls out before her head lolls back and she faints. Peter shouts May’s name in surprise as he gathers her in his arms, turning to glare at you. You have never thought you would be at the receiving end of Spiderman’s glare but there is a first for everything.

“If anything happens to her, I – I,” Peter shakes his head, cutting his sentence off before rushing out of the store. You immediately run after him.

“Peter, wait! Where are you taking her? Peter Parker!” You shout after him – completely forgetting to even keep his identity a secret – and when it dawns on you that Peter is ignoring you, you hurriedly rush to your car, praying that Karen called the police. You really want to stay but you had other places to be, so you get in the car and make your way to the closest hospital where you are sure Peter is heading to. On your way to the hospital, you finally realize that your back is starting to get wet and when you stop at a red light, you look down at your chair and realize that your car seat is starting to get wet too. Before you can even contemplate what they were, the light turned green so you had to continue your drive to the hospital.

However, the closer you get to the hospital, the hazier your vision becomes and just as you park, you realize that the wetness is not water (you don’t even know why you thought it was water, clearly, you were not thinking straight at all) but blood. That is when it hits you, quite painfully actually. The man had actually nicked the back of your neck and some part of your shoulder and there is really nothing much you can do except to try and alleviate the pain.

When you see Peter dressed in his civilian clothes, helping May walk in to the hospital, you rush out of the car, not minding the burning pain. “Peter!” You call out – you know he heard you, his heightened senses would have helped him, but he simply ignores as he speeds walk right in to the hospital, calling for a nurse to help his Aunt. Your movement starts to become sluggish and by the time you get to the lobby, you are feeling extremely light-headed and your vision is spotty. The next thing you know, the pain became unbearable and your throat closes, and you topple over in to the dark abyss. (You only find out later on that you had fainted mostly because of blood loss and if you had taken longer to come to the hospital, you would have been in a critical condition).

In the far distance, you can hear a thread of hushed conversation and since the voices seem a little bit too far away for you to actually make sense, you struggle to open your eyes. Your body involuntarily shivers at the thought of the incident that happened prior to you fainting. With a whimper, you shift the slightest bit and finally manage to open your eyes.

Peter’s ace is the first one you see (much to your surprise because as far as you remember, he had gotten mad at you for endangering Aunt May) and you furrow your eyebrows, blinking a few times to focus on him. He gives you a very weak and wobbly grin but then his expression crumples and you can see the tears starting to well up in his eyes. “He – Hey, Y/N; you’re finally awake.”

“How is Aunt May?” The last thing you remembered before you blacked out had been Peter bringing May away but other than that, you honestly don’t really remember much. You also notice that your voice is a little bit hoarse but that is expected although you didn’t know how long you have been unconscious for.

“I’m here.” May approaches your bed and you look away from Peter to give her a smile. She brushes the tears that are falling down her cheeks and reaches for your hand, holding it tightly. Her bruise does not look as bad and you start to wonder just how long you have been in the hospital. Sensing your confusion, May takes a deep breath before exhaling slowly. “You have been unconscious for two days now, Y/N – we only just managed to convince your parents to go home for food and shower. You lost a lot of blood and the doctor wasn’t sure if you were going to pull through – you, you scared us.” May bursts out crying and Peter moves over to his aunt’s side and pulls her in to his arm. May still feels partially guilty because she is the reason why you are laying on the hospital bed.

Seeing May crying makes you tear up as well, so Peter pulls his aunt away and out of the room. You try moving your hands and your arms – your right arm hurts more than your left arm, so you look down to see that you also have a bruise on your arm the size of the robber’s handprint – and cringe at the pain. Leave it to your luck to get you in this sort of situation; you sniffle quietly to yourself and Peter walks back in a few minutes later.

“Did you send Aunt May home?” You ask him when you notice that he is alone. You try to sit up and Peter moves over to help you immediately. He preps up the pillow and even though your back hurts, you really don’t feel like laying on your back as much. “Thank you, Peter.” He shakes his head and sits down on the chair beside your bed, the same seat he had been in when you woke up earlier.

“Told her to go home and take a nap. She hasn’t – she hasn’t been sleeping well, uh, we all, uh, haven’t.” Peter stumbles through his words and he looks at you before he slowly reaches for your hand. “You scared me.” His thumb brushes over your knuckles and you furrow your eyebrows as you focus all of your attention on the man beside you.

For the past two days, Peter has yet to comprehend just how bad of a friend he had been – not even noticing the fact that you hadn’t run after him and if there is ever a trophy for the worst friend ever, Peter thinks he deserves it. The incident that happened two days ago is still very fresh in his mind and he only realized you were missing when May woke up, asking to see you. It took Peter a while to find out that you have been brought to the OT because of blood loss. He is still shaken over the fact that you could have died, and he would never have the chance to tell you his feelings.

Yes, in the span of two days, Peter has come to realize that he does, in fact, like you. Peter likes you a lot – he swears he might even be in love with you. “You scared me.” He repeats, tightening the hold he has on your hand.

“I think I scared myself too.” You whisper to him and Peter shakes his head before leaning closer to wrap his arms around you gingerly, apologizing over and over in hushed voices. Using your free hand, you pull him closer – the tears that you have been trying to hold back finally falls and you cry on to his chest. He rubs your back soothingly; he wants to tell you his feelings – he really does – but right now, it’s probably not the right time to do so.

“You’re alright now, Y/N.” Peter whispers in your ear as he continues to rub your back. “You’re safe now – I got you, I got you.” He presses his lips atop of your head a couple of times. “It’ll be okay.”

You simply tighten the hold you have on Peter’s shirt because you honestly cannot believe just how close you had been to death – how close you had been to not be able to see Peter again. It is all just too much for you and Peter comforting you is also not exactly helping your cause – it just reminds you of the fact that May has been right all along.

You actually have feelings for Peter Parker.


End file.
